Baseball-America's Past Time-What a Sad Statement

I remember as a kid, watching ballgames with my grandfather. What a time that was. The game seemed to have an innocence about it. It reminded me of summertime and playing catch with my friends. Now what do we think about when the word baseball comes up? Steroids, tainted records, and frauds. Now don't get me wrong. I am not naive enough to think that the stars of yesteryear were saints. Baseball players mirrored society as a whole. They ranged the whole spectrum. Today's baseball players (probably can be stated about all pro athletes) represented all that is bad about our society; greed, cheating, and selfishness. There was probably some of this decades ago but because the money is so great now, there are more kids (and kids' parents) who want to make it big like there favorite stars and will do whatever it takes to make it. What kind of role models are these guys? I know, many of these athletes say they don't want to or shouldn't be considered role models. They are right. But if they truly don't want to be role models, then don't sell your jerseys or likeness. Hearing that Alex Rodriguez took steroids was the final straw for me. As far as I am concern, none of these guys are clean. All I know is that I am angry that these guys (owners, management, and players) took some of my fondest childhood memories away from me. Greedy bastards, I wash my hands of you!

Grizzley Island Wildlife Preserve

Grizzley Island Wildlife Preserve is made up of approximately 84,000 acres. It is the largest continuous estuary in the U.S. It is a beautiful place that where you can see all kinds of wildlife. It is also a place that allows the dogs to run and their owners to bird train them. Today, I took the opportunity to do just that. I was to meet friends of mine at 10 to work on training Grady for his next level of hunt test. I actually got out there at about 8:30 this morning to run the dogs a bit before hand. While we were out there, we saw a group of Tule Elk (they are a protected species) and the above pictures series are the show Dixy reaction when she first notices them.

It was interesting to watch these animals. In the top picture, you can see that there is one elk in particular that appears to be the head guy. We they took off after, he stayed back to make sure we weren't going to come any closer. Nature is really an interesting thing. Something I wasn't aware of, these animals lose their antlers. The dogs found one on the way back. It was huge and heavy. If the dogs had their way, they would have used it as a chew bone.

After all the running and treasure finding, we started our bird training. Below are a couple of pictures of Grady on point. As you can see from the second picture, I was a bit of a distance away from him. He held until I got there. All-in-all, his training day went pretty well.

Also, all-in-all, it was another great day in the bay/delta area.

Devoted to Our Canine Companions

It's has been a while since I have posted anything. Perhaps because I have been lazy or lacking in anything meaningful to say. Today, however, I felt compelled to write because I was saddened by a story I read about a woman losing her beloved dog, Paco. After reading the story, I was moved by the obvious devotion this woman had to her dog and the devastating pain she is feeling from losing him. I don't even know this woman but do know that I would like her a lot because of the love she exhibited to Paco. So devoted and loving in fact that she named her business after him and he is the image on her website. One thing I can say, I gave extra hugs to each of my pups and realized how grateful I am that they are in my life. The thing about pups is that they love you unconditionally. I love that about them. They are safe creatures to give love to because you know they won't take advantage of it. We truly are lucky to have them in our world. And I hope when the day comes that I lose one of mine, I can reflect on all the good things they brought me.